An eschatological framework and social identity in 1QM 1:1-15 and 1 Thessalonians 5:1-11

Abstract

In the Qumran War Scroll (1QM) 1:1–15 and 1 Thessalonians 5:1–11, almost the same eschatological interpretative framework is created with words from the semantic domains of light and darkness, kinship, war, ethics, divinity and time. Although the constructed frameworks in these texts look alike, their impact on the self-understanding of the respective Qumran and Thessalonian communities is different. This article aims to reconstruct these frameworks from the texts by using semantic dictionaries and to reconstruct the probable impact of these frameworks on the self-understanding of the communities by utilizing some insights from sociolinguistics. It shows that although communities around the beginning of the era used almost the same frameworks, the effect on group identities could be significantly different.